Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus
Year 2012

This report by the Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the U.S. Department of Commerce attempts to identify the first-order players that are growing IP in the U.S. economy and protecting their innovations through patents, trademarks, or copyrights.

These IP-intensive industries support tens of millions of jobs and contribute several trillion dollars to our gross domestic product (GDP). This report not only estimates the contributions of these industries to our economy, but also gauges the ripple, or domino, effects they have on employment throughout the economy.

The role of the manufacturing sector in the U.S. economy is more prominent than is suggested solely by its output or number of workers. It is a cornerstone of innovation in our economy: manufacturing firms fund most domestic corporate research and development (R&D), and the resulting innovations and productivity growth improve our standard of living. Manufacturing also drives U.S. exports and is crucial for a strong national defense.

This publication is part of Advocacy’s 30-year-old series documenting small business landmarks and trends. This edition continues the tradition of previous editions; however, it also breaks with the past in shifting to an exclusively online format. While the length of the current publication is shorter, the heart of the report—small business and financial data tables—is here presented in easily downloaded, native spreadsheet format.

This report details the challenging economic conditions small businesses faced in a difficult year for the economy in 2009. The good news is that by the end of the year, extraordinary actions taken by the federal government were beginning to be felt in the small business economy.

The Life Cycle of a Minority-Owned Business: Implications for the American Economy
Year 2004

The U.S. faces unprecedented demographic changes, the net result of which will be dramatic changes in the size, and racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. labor force. In the future the U.S. labor force will grow more slowly, and any growth that is realized will be accounted for by minorities. The success or failure of minority-owned businesses will increasingly drive the success or failure of the overall U.S. economy. This study was prepared for MBDA National Minority Enterprise Development Week 2004 Conference.